Did you know that more than 1 billion people use Instagram every month? Over the past 10 years, this platform has evolved immensely. It started as a photo-sharing application, but now it has become a focal point of business marketing.
According to the data, approximately 90% of Instagram users follow at least one business account. Moreover, the application gets regular updates, offering marketers and entrepreneurs convenience to grow their businesses. It helps companies connect with their target audience, increase brand visibility, promote the product or service and elevate sales.
So, do you also want to learn how to use Instagram for the growth of your company? Don’t worry! It is effortless; scroll down to learn a step-by-step guide!
Step 1: Create Your Instagram Professional Account
To get started, you need to have an Instagram account, to be specific to an Instagram business account. You can download the application for Android, iOS, and Windows. Use your business email address to sign up for the application. If you don’t have a business email address, you can use your personal address as well.
While signing up, you can also connect your account with the Facebook page. After creating your account, you need to convert it into a business/professional account. To do that:
- Tap on the hamburger menu (in the upper-right corner) from your profile.
- Tap settings > select account > Select Switch to Professional account.
- Tap continue > Select the category > Add relevant details > Tap Done.
Congratulations! Now you are all set to attract more customers and build your brand name.
Step 2: Plan A Creative Social Media Strategy
After creating the account, you need to draft a social media strategy. First of all, you need to identify your target audience. It’ll help you with the content and marketing strategy. After that, you need to decide the goals and objectives that this platform can help you achieve. Make sure that your goals are based on the following framework:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant, and
- Timely
After defining your goals, you need to decide the content you need to publish as well as the dates you’ll post the content. It’d be better if you create a content calendar so that you don’t miss out on any important dates.
Step 3: Optimize Your Account Profile
The application provides a small space in the profile to write a bio. You can write about your brand, company goal and add a website link or contact details. People generally learn about brands by reading the bio. Therefore you need to be very cautious about what you are writing.
Moreover, the character limit of Insta bio is 150 characters. So, you need to write short yet creative enough to catch the attention of visitors. You can also use line breaks to keep the bio organized and appealing. You can also use emoticons to improve the bio. Nonetheless, always include CTA in the bio; it can be a website link or email address, or contact number.
Also, don’t forget to use your logo as a profile picture. But keep in mind that Instagram profile pictures cannot be opened, so you need to ensure that your profile picture is clear and visible.
Step 4: Focus On Sharing High-quality Content
After optimizing your profile, you need to pay attention to the content of your post. Needless to say, that content is the only thing that helps in attracting the visitors to the profile and engage with the brand. Therefore, you need to plan out a unique and captivating content strategy.
Also, the content should be able to grab the attention of users in seconds. Otherwise, they’ll just scroll down to look for something more entertaining.
In addition to this, you need to ensure that your content strategy clarifies your message to the target audience. One way to do that is by following the Storybrand framework, as it’ll help you craft great content stories that customers will surely like to listen to. The better content you’ll provide, the more the audience will discover you; thus, the brand visibility will increase.
Step 5: Engage With Your Customers
Along with posting regular and quality content, you need to focus on audience engagement. There is no doubt that Instagram is a great platform to connect with your target audience. There are numerous features that you can use to form an unbreakable relationship with your followers.
For instance, you can reply to their comments, ask for feedback (using ask me anything) and repost the mentions. Likewise, you can use polls or contests to keep the users entertained.
On top of that, you can use relevant and trendy hashtags, high-quality pictures, and live streams so that more people discover and engage with the brand. In fact, it won’t be wrong to say that by continuously communicating with the target audience, you’ll be able to create a loyal customer base.
Note: One of the highly used strategies to connect with more audiences is collaborating with influencers. They have a high and organic following; thus, if you promote your brand with their help, the reach will increase, and you might also make higher sales.
Step 6: Measure Success And Make Adjustments
Last but not least, you need to track your progress to learn what you have achieved. You can do that very easily as the application has a built-in analytics tool for the professional account. Therefore, you can get results for the 30-day performance of the page. You can either use this or get a new tool to measure the success of your brand.
In case the results are not exceeding your expectations, you’ll still learn about the loopholes. So, you can rework content and marketing strategies and implement them. Learn about the new upgrade and trends and use them to benefit your brand. With constant efforts, you’ll surely grab the attention of thousands of audiences and elevate your brand.
To sum it all up!
To survive in today’s competitive world, it is essential that your business is available on every online platform. It’ll help in increasing the reach of the brand and connect with potential customers. With the information given above, you’ll be able to use Instagram to grow your brand and get success.
